Season 3: Chapter 13: The Need to Die (2)
Bread had shown him something on the first day of swordsmanship lessons.
"Watch carefully. This is Liechtenauer swordsmanship."
Whoosh!
She raised the sword above her head once. It remained positioned at the top of her head. From that stance, she advanced.
"Three basic sword movements."
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Twisting her body while stepping, she swung twice more to the sides and executed a total of three swings in an instant.
"These three movements are both offensive and defensive, forming the basic foundation of Liechtenauer’s techniques."
The sword technique involved simple posture transitions for simultaneous offense and defense. This was the actual swordsmanship of Liechtenauer, who had been honored with the title of swordmaster. Of course, it only applied to longswords and similar swords with elongated and double-edged blades.
"If the Joseon civilization had access to longswords, they would definitely have adopted Liechtenauer's techniques."
Swish.
She was suddenly holding a hwando (Korean blade).
"But we have single-edged swords, also called ‘do.’"
She adopted a completely different stance. If Liechtenauer's approach was to move forward like a tank while blocking and advancing, this was more like a starved predator throwing everything into the hunt.
"If Liechtenauer's techniques involved creating continuous openings in Western armor by calculating the next sword strike..."
Ssshhh...
Bread firmly stepped forward, moving the sword.
"This stakes everything on a single opening."
Was it just a feeling? Or was it something in their DNA?
"Homeland Sword Style 33, Form 9: Fierce Tiger's Forest."
Liechtenauer's method was certainly more efficient and safe.
Swoosh!
Like a hunting leopard, she moved swiftly with flexibility.
Almond felt it was even cooler than Liechtenauer’s.
"Try to follow along."
***
Swoosh!
Almond’s sword flashed once.
"Hahaha! You didn’t know about this system, did you?! You're all finished…"
A red line appeared across the arrogant Radish Kimchi’s neck.
"Oh, bro. This blade is sharp!"
— ???
— Crazy LOL
— What?
Bubblegum, witnessing the scene, was at a loss for words and backpedaled.
"He, he doesn’t seem like he can stand?"
As he spoke—
Fwoosh!!
A fountain of blood spurted from the cut surface of Radish Kimchi’s neck.
Thump!
The head fell to the ground. Even as it rolled, Radish Kimchi was still laughing.
"... Hah? Hahaha!?"
It wasn’t that he was still alive, it was just a bug that appeared due to a glitch.
“Ah...! He’s still laughing! Radish Kimchi!”
“What is this... He’s dead, right?”
— LOL
— ??? You didn't know about this system? -> He himself didn't know LOL
— LOL, him laughing is hilarious LOL
"Haha…"
Like a speaker running out of battery, his voice shrank and died out.
The other special zombies, Squid and Grasshopper, watched this scene.
"What on earth...?"
"Crazy."
Uncharacteristically, they staggered back as zombies.
“Why are the zombies backing away?”
“Is the footage playing in reverse??”
— Reverse playback LOL
— Zombies forcefully injected with intelligence LOL
— LOL it's hilarious seeing zombies running away
The Class 3 students, who had panicked at the appearance of the special zombies, began to recover from their disarray at the idea of zombies showing fear.
"What's going on? Are they trying to run away?"
"Are they actually weaklings?"
Emboldened, the Class 3 students began their counterattack.
"Those losers are running! Kill the rest!"
"Ahhhhhh!"
Class 3 began mercilessly beating down the zombies with desks and golf clubs obtained from the infirmary.
Thump!
Thud!
The ordinary zombies, lacking the intelligence to flee, began to get eradicated.
"I'll handle these guys," Almond murmured something akin to a death sentence for the zombies as he advanced.
"Shit, they're coming..."
Squid and Grasshopper looked tense and froze despite being known as challenge hunters and being special zombies.
— Has the situation reversed? LOL
— Why are they scared?? LOL
— This zombie duo is hilarious LOL
"Hey, hey. Use a skill. Use a skill!"
"What should I use?"
"You know, that one! The long-range one!"
They prepared to launch a desperate attack.
"Eh... Dammit!"
Ssshhh!
The zombie with a long tongue tried to snag a survivor.
[Catcher]
He was a catcher. His tongue whipped out like a lash, flying toward Almond at a speed that caused a sonic boom.
Bang!
It would have been too fast to respond to in a typical situation, but the opponent was not ordinary.
"This side."
The faster the speed, the easier it was for Almond to cut as if the tongue willingly collided with the blade.
Ssshhh!
Just placing the sword in its path was enough to shave off the tongue.
“Waaaah!?”
“Did he just cut that?”
“Cutting a flying whip? That's some difficulty level!”
"Choke...! Ack! Aaack!"
"Hey. Hey. What’s wrong?"
"Blurgh! Blurrgh ack!"
Having his tongue cut, the catcher seemed to lose control over his body and couldn't regain his senses.
— Damn LOL
— LOL, that's hilarious LOL
— LOL
“Why is the catcher acting like that?]
“Special zombies have these kinds of statuses under certain conditions. It’s a kind of weakness, you know.”
“Oh. The players must have had a tough time against them... Too bad his opponent is Almond!”
“Almond is moving in!”
"This, this is bullshit..."
The other special zombie realized that he had to do something.
[Shaker]
He was a shaker, moving on all fours and annoyingly causing chaos across the battlefield. He could move freely across ceilings and walls due to his ability to run on all fours.
“The shaker is running around!”
Tatatatat!
Sure enough, he moved across the walls and ceiling before charging in.
“What’s with all that chaos? Isn’t he just heading to Almond anyway?!”
No matter how much he tried to confuse them, his final destination was too obvious.
Crash!
The shaker kicked off one wall and hurled his body.
“Almond! Swing your sword!”
Having cut a supersonic tongue already, it was unlikely that Almond couldn’t handle this.
Almond's eyes flashed once.
"Precisely."
With a succinct and powerful sword stroke—
Swoooosh!!
Almond cleaved the shaker's body in half.
"!"
As the shaker passed by, its body fell to the ground.
Thump!
It was split exactly in half from left to right.
The commentator shouted at the top of his lungs, “Zombies emergencyyyyy!”
— Zombies, why an emergency? LOL
— Almond's apocalypse
— "Ah"pocalypse LOL
“A zombie just got split vertically. It's not like slicing sashimi!”
“And right through the bone! Did we just make zombie sashimi!?”
— Zombie sashimi LOL
— Wow, rice thief
— Ew
“Right now, the catcher just saw its friend turn into sashimi!”
“Even zombies get PTSD from this!?”
“Ah... eventually!”
Almond approached and swiftly cut down the stunned catcher too.
“The catcher is down too!”
Class 1's bloody vendetta ended with Almond testing out his new weapon.
“Wait? Does this mean only Class 3 is left in the main building now?”
“Yes. All that’s left for them is to find a way up!”
The only survivors in the main building were Class 3.
***
"Phew, phew...! These crazy bastards!"
More out of annoyance than necessity, Bubblegum kicked the fallen charger’s head.
"That scared me. They were nothing special."
— ???
— If Bubblegum had the sword, they would have been wiped out here
— Typical macho: Shows up after the fight ends to mumble something LOL
— Zombie: ???
"Is everyone dead now? By the way, who were those guys earlier? They seemed to have a grudge against you," Tako asked while finishing off the remaining zombies.
"Ah... just passing acquaintances. Haha," Almond laughed it off.
— Fyi, Almond currently can't remember names.
— Nut jerk doesn't know the opponent’s username LOL
— It wasn’t fate, it was just the sword passing by
Tako took it in stride as if accustomed to it and asked again, "Right. You don't remember their names. It seems like players become special zombies."
"Yes."
The players from Class 1 had deliberately turned into special zombies and rushed at Almond for revenge. If special zombies could target players with such a purpose, next time could be more dangerous.
"We'll need to be careful."
Tako nodded and directed their next actions.
"First, let's farm everything here. Strip all the leather off the sofas and bring it to Su-Hyun."
Leather was surprisingly an important resource. It was highly durable and comfortable to wear.
"Good. Everyone with a kitchen knife, come here!"
Under the leader's direction, the students gathered to strip the leather from the sofas.
Squeak.
Squeak.
"Almond, just a moment."
At this moment, Tako called for a private meeting among the players.
"Why?"
"Right now, we’re over twenty-five people."
This topic was bound to come up.
"… Ah."
"There are thirty of us. We need to reduce it by five."
"Can't we just go to the roof and decide there?"
"No, look at this."
Tako showed the newly sent emergency message again.
[... Attention. Rescue operations are difficult without finalizing the number of people to be rescued.]
Only the bottom part had changed.
"It looks like we need to thin the numbers ourselves."
"… Ha. This game really is brutal, isn’t it?" Bubblegum lamented. "I should have trolled harder."
— LOL
— Bubblegum messed up LOL
— Almond, the troll LOL, how are they all still alive?
"Are we deciding now?"
Tako shook his head.
"We can't start picking now and drop morale. Eventually, meeting zombies along the way might naturally eliminate about five…"
To reach the helicopter rescue on the roof, they had to go through the third and fourth floors. Naturally, around five more of their members would perish without any deliberate selection. Why did they call for this meeting then?
"… I'm just guessing, but I think there might be a way to rescue more than twenty-five people."
Tako believed that a route to save more than twenty-five people existed.
"Eh? Is that possible?"
"Don't you remember? You needed an immune person to be rescued in the early access."
Yes, they had to bring an immune person to get accepted at the shelter in the early access. It was one immune person for every ten people or something like that.
In this multiplayer mode, the concept of an immune person had yet to be introduced.
"Ooh…"
It seemed reasonable.
"Honestly, it doesn't seem like they'd put us through the stress of forcibly leaving NPCs who followed us. It's just a game, after all."
It was highly likely that individuals with immunity existed.
"But it's just a strong hunch."
They had no concrete evidence. It was just a plausible hypothesis. Tako simply wanted to bring it up and think about it.
"Right now, something is marked on my map. There's something on the fifth floor."
"!"
"What could it be in this situation?"
That gave their hypothesis some credibility.
***
Was it human nature to want to climb a mountain? In this zombie infested world, a group of students were climbing a wall. They were climbing the gas pipelines installed in the main building.
"Hey, Jessie. Is this how it's supposed to be done? It seems impossible," a male student struggling to climb a valve piped up.
"Oh, would you like me to let you go back down now? Want to experience 9.8m/s2 gravitational acceleration?" the leading redhead girl retorted threateningly.
Seeing a redhead was rare in this game that automatically adjusted players to their seventeen and eighteen year old appearances. It made sense since this was the international team.
"Damn... I should've just stayed at the Civil Empire competition."
They were members of Denmark's team scheduled to compete in Civil Empire's international competition.
"You said it was fun earlier? Just get to the second floor and hold on."
"Winning is fun. Climbing walls isn't."
"We’ll win~"
Another foreigner grumbled from behind, "There was a guy in China named Masong. He climbed the wrong mountain and ended up getting his head chopped off by his superior. They call that Mount Masong."
"Is that your story?"
"…"
The girl who had been climbing well suddenly stopped.
Thump!
Because of that, the man right behind her got a foot in his face.
"Oof! What, what are you doing?"
"Dammit, Jessie is trying to Mount Masong us. Idiot, why did you say that?"
"No, that’s not what it means—"
"Shush! Shut up!"
Jessie kicked him a few more times to quiet him down.
She peeked out with just her head and looked through the second floor window.
"There's someone inside."
***
[Beginner’s Tip: Nietzsche said, “He who fights monsters should see to it that he himself does not become a monster.]